merrymouse1
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- May 18, 2010
- Messages
- 75
Hi all, this is my first attempt at a PTR so bear with me.
Just a little about us:
Me (merrymouse1) I love the world and am super excited to be going for the 4th time. Although the first time doesn't really count as I was 14 and too cool for my own good and went with a bunch of other too cool for their own good 14 year olds on a church trip many, many years ago. (I must remember this when dealing with one of my NO's) I'll explain later. Im the planner and the psycher-upper! Yes, I said psycher-upper, someone has to do it. Oh, yeah, I guess I should list my age, ahem, ahem, 44, now how the heck did that happen? I swear 3 months ago I was 26???
DH (no screen name as he is a definitely one of the NO's) We'll be calling him Big NO. He swore after the last trip (4 years ago) that he would never return. This is a recurring theme in our household, my DH putting his foot down and we pretty much do what we want, make our plans and somehow he ends up with us. Poor guy, he tries. We also all take a fit of laughter every time he tries to yell at us, it must be rather deflating. He rarely yells so when he does we just think its hysterical
So, anyway, he's 46, YIPES! is that correct, let me do the math, born 1964, its 2010, already had a birthday....shoot, he IS 46, my goodness, he's getting up there. I think Im painting a very wrong picture of him though, he is NOT a pushover by any stretch of the imagination but we do seem to sway him to our way of thinking...like these conversations from the past:
re: children
ME: I want another baby.
HIM: We have a girl and a boy, we're all set.
Well, it did take almost 4 years of begging but I got my way and we have another beautiful daughter and she is wonderful and a constant source of "I told you so's" by me.
re: pets
ME: I want a dog.
HIM: Im not ready...let's think about it for about 6 months and revisit the subject then.
Well, I bombarded him with photos of cute adorable puppies, video montages etc and within two weeks I was driving 16 hours to pick up our pup. I won't even get into the parrots....Um....I have three.
Thats just a small sampling of what my poor hubby deals with, wow, Im glad Im not married to myself, I must think about this...Anywho...we are going to disney and that's all that counts!
DD1 age 14 and another one of the NO's. UGH! She does not want to go, she does not want to miss school, she does not want to hang out with us, speak to us, eat with us, least of all travel with us....you get the drift. For the sake of this report we'll call her lil' no
DS1 age 12, my sweet little boy who is really excited about going but is starting to think his mom is a little weird. I know, I never thought it would happen to my sweet little perfect boy but he is entering the teen years...the years that sucks all the sweetness and goodness right out of a kid. But I think I can suck him right back into childhood while at disney. We'll call him Chickie and Ill explain why....this kid is a chick magnet. As Im learning the hard way 12 year old girls are very aggressive and much more mature than 12 year old boys. I have girls calling here all hours of the day and night, geesh. Chickie is learning how to deal with his new found popularity but its not always easy. After all, the phone calls are interrupting important xbox time.
Then there is DD2, my salvation. My last glimpse of childhood. She is 8 and perfect. A great age. The last time she was at disney she was 4 and didn't really go on many rides so this is her year to do it ALL! She is super excited! What can I say about her...she is a super smart, dynamic, friendly, wise beyond her years, kind, independent, fashion diva! We'll call her Sunshine because she is all that is good about childhood.
We are also traveling with 13 other people, YUP, I said 13 other people.
Three of my neighbors are joining us so we have 8 adults and 10 kids. Kids ages are 4, 7, 8, 9, 12, 12, 12, 13, 14, 15. It should be interesting. Ill refer to the other families as the J's, the C's and the K's.
At first we were going to stay offsite. I did not like this plan. Offsite!!! how can we stay offsite! I want to eat, drink, and smell disney while Im at disney! But it was 7 against 1 and I lost.....but not for long. See, I planned out my whole trip right down to ADR's with the hope that free dining would be extended into Nov and then I had the naysayers right where I wanted them.
Who can resist free dining? So we cancelled our offsite ressies and we are all staying at POR!!!
So without further ado and needless rambling here is my plan:
Day 1 we have room only as its a black out day. As much as I hate not to go directly to the parks I had to concede and do it "their" way just this once.
Day 1 Thurs Nov 11th: We have a 7:00am flight so if all goes well we arrive at MCO at 10:00am. We will spend the day at POR, explore, eat, swim (big waste of time IMHO) then we all (all 18 of us) head to DTD for dinner at T-Rex OOP 7:00pm and some shopping. Early to bed hopefully. I honestly don't know how I am going to cope being that close to the parks but yet so far away...
Day 2 Fri Nov 12th: Epcot. We usually always start at MK but we wanted to catch the tail end of F&W so Epcot here we come. We want to do all the rides, I mean everything! ADR 6:50 Les Chefs De France with just us. We picked mostly new eating establishments this time around so this is a first for us. Will we be too full for a sit down after the sampling all the offerings at F&W?
Day 3 Sat Nov 13th: Finally MK!!!! I have never, ever made a rope drop ever! and I want to make many this year. The parks close early and I like to make the most of it! We will spend a fun filled day at MK and have an ADR at GFC at 6:45 with the J's. (never been to GFC either) its also EMH until 1am, hope its not too crowded as we will head back after dinner to at least catch wishes.
Day 4 Sun Nov 14th: Ok, this is where we really veer off of our usual trip...we are going to Universal for the day. Another concession on my part is we are only doing one park, universal studios. I wanted to do both but I especially wanted to do IOA. I love coasters and wanted to try the ones in IOA. Im just pointing this out to prove that I do give in...sometimes. We have never been to universal so I have no idea how to plan for it. I am completely in the dark and just hoping for the best. This bugs me to no end as I am a planner.
This was supposed to be my AK day with Boma but I had to scratch it. I have no idea where we will be eating maybe DTD after or better yet its EMH at MK so maybe we can head there after??? I don't know this day scares the life out of me. It could be bad, very bad.
Day 5 Mon Nov 15th: Our 18th Wedding Anniversary!!!! MGM or HS whateva! This is not the park I would normally choose for my anniversary dinner because I have never had a good meal here. But, Im trying to go with the flow you know? 18 people and all... ADR 3:30 at 50's Prime Time with the K's, another 1st for us.
Day 6 Tues Nov 16th:MK because you just cannot do MK once. Winnie the pooh reopens this day so we must hit that. ADR Kona Cafe with J's and K's. Never had dinner here, only breakfast so its kinda new for us.
Day 7 Weds Nov 17th: AK which we will only have until about 2:00 because our flight leaves at 6:00ish.
What do you all think? I wanted to add all my pictures but for some reason the little box in the bottom left corner says I cannot post attachments. When I figure it out Ill attach my pictures, whats a report without pictures? If anyone can tell me how to do it I would appreciate it.
So what will happen? Will I turn the NO, NO's into GO, GO's after all? Will chaos ensue traveling with 18 people? Will I ever get my way on this trip? I've warned my neighbors and my neighbors kids that I get a little crazy when it comes to disney and to just stay out of my way and no one will get hurt, so they have been warned.
So here is it Nov 2nd and I have done absolutely nothing as far as preparing for the trip. On a side note, as I do not want this to be the tone of my report, I have just recently gotten some very, very bad news in regards to the health of my mom. She has stage 4 lung cancer and it is very bad. She has no symptoms yet but will start her treatments 3 days before our trip to try to give her a little more time. This sounds so blase' writing it like this and believe me I do not feel blase' about it. Its been a huge kick in the gut but we are dealing and making the best of it. I was going to cancel my trip but she would not hear of it. So we are going to proceed with the trip and try to have as blissful of a trip as we possibly can before returning to reality to deal with some very real life issues. Its awful, its a nightmare. We need this week as a family.
So, here I am wasting my one day off writing a PTR when I really should be catching up on my pig sty of a house and conquering the mountain of laundry that has been pushed aside for the last week while dealing with my moms health. Im a great procrastinator and you all have given me the perfect excuse to push off my chores for a couple of hours but I must go now and start the chores. So long and Ill check back soon to hopefully see that someone has actually taken the time to read my PTR without falling asleep. I may be setting myself up for dissappointment as I cannot write or spell for that matter but I try.
Just a little about us:
Me (merrymouse1) I love the world and am super excited to be going for the 4th time. Although the first time doesn't really count as I was 14 and too cool for my own good and went with a bunch of other too cool for their own good 14 year olds on a church trip many, many years ago. (I must remember this when dealing with one of my NO's) I'll explain later. Im the planner and the psycher-upper! Yes, I said psycher-upper, someone has to do it. Oh, yeah, I guess I should list my age, ahem, ahem, 44, now how the heck did that happen? I swear 3 months ago I was 26???
DH (no screen name as he is a definitely one of the NO's) We'll be calling him Big NO. He swore after the last trip (4 years ago) that he would never return. This is a recurring theme in our household, my DH putting his foot down and we pretty much do what we want, make our plans and somehow he ends up with us. Poor guy, he tries. We also all take a fit of laughter every time he tries to yell at us, it must be rather deflating. He rarely yells so when he does we just think its hysterical
So, anyway, he's 46, YIPES! is that correct, let me do the math, born 1964, its 2010, already had a birthday....shoot, he IS 46, my goodness, he's getting up there. I think Im painting a very wrong picture of him though, he is NOT a pushover by any stretch of the imagination but we do seem to sway him to our way of thinking...like these conversations from the past:re: children
ME: I want another baby.
HIM: We have a girl and a boy, we're all set.
Well, it did take almost 4 years of begging but I got my way and we have another beautiful daughter and she is wonderful and a constant source of "I told you so's" by me.
re: pets
ME: I want a dog.
HIM: Im not ready...let's think about it for about 6 months and revisit the subject then.
Well, I bombarded him with photos of cute adorable puppies, video montages etc and within two weeks I was driving 16 hours to pick up our pup. I won't even get into the parrots....Um....I have three.
Thats just a small sampling of what my poor hubby deals with, wow, Im glad Im not married to myself, I must think about this...Anywho...we are going to disney and that's all that counts!
DD1 age 14 and another one of the NO's. UGH! She does not want to go, she does not want to miss school, she does not want to hang out with us, speak to us, eat with us, least of all travel with us....you get the drift. For the sake of this report we'll call her lil' no
DS1 age 12, my sweet little boy who is really excited about going but is starting to think his mom is a little weird. I know, I never thought it would happen to my sweet little perfect boy but he is entering the teen years...the years that sucks all the sweetness and goodness right out of a kid. But I think I can suck him right back into childhood while at disney. We'll call him Chickie and Ill explain why....this kid is a chick magnet. As Im learning the hard way 12 year old girls are very aggressive and much more mature than 12 year old boys. I have girls calling here all hours of the day and night, geesh. Chickie is learning how to deal with his new found popularity but its not always easy. After all, the phone calls are interrupting important xbox time.
Then there is DD2, my salvation. My last glimpse of childhood. She is 8 and perfect. A great age. The last time she was at disney she was 4 and didn't really go on many rides so this is her year to do it ALL! She is super excited! What can I say about her...she is a super smart, dynamic, friendly, wise beyond her years, kind, independent, fashion diva! We'll call her Sunshine because she is all that is good about childhood.
We are also traveling with 13 other people, YUP, I said 13 other people.
Three of my neighbors are joining us so we have 8 adults and 10 kids. Kids ages are 4, 7, 8, 9, 12, 12, 12, 13, 14, 15. It should be interesting. Ill refer to the other families as the J's, the C's and the K's. At first we were going to stay offsite. I did not like this plan. Offsite!!! how can we stay offsite! I want to eat, drink, and smell disney while Im at disney! But it was 7 against 1 and I lost.....but not for long. See, I planned out my whole trip right down to ADR's with the hope that free dining would be extended into Nov and then I had the naysayers right where I wanted them.
Who can resist free dining? So we cancelled our offsite ressies and we are all staying at POR!!!So without further ado and needless rambling here is my plan:
Day 1 we have room only as its a black out day. As much as I hate not to go directly to the parks I had to concede and do it "their" way just this once.
Day 1 Thurs Nov 11th: We have a 7:00am flight so if all goes well we arrive at MCO at 10:00am. We will spend the day at POR, explore, eat, swim (big waste of time IMHO) then we all (all 18 of us) head to DTD for dinner at T-Rex OOP 7:00pm and some shopping. Early to bed hopefully. I honestly don't know how I am going to cope being that close to the parks but yet so far away...
Day 2 Fri Nov 12th: Epcot. We usually always start at MK but we wanted to catch the tail end of F&W so Epcot here we come. We want to do all the rides, I mean everything! ADR 6:50 Les Chefs De France with just us. We picked mostly new eating establishments this time around so this is a first for us. Will we be too full for a sit down after the sampling all the offerings at F&W?
Day 3 Sat Nov 13th: Finally MK!!!! I have never, ever made a rope drop ever! and I want to make many this year. The parks close early and I like to make the most of it! We will spend a fun filled day at MK and have an ADR at GFC at 6:45 with the J's. (never been to GFC either) its also EMH until 1am, hope its not too crowded as we will head back after dinner to at least catch wishes.
Day 4 Sun Nov 14th: Ok, this is where we really veer off of our usual trip...we are going to Universal for the day. Another concession on my part is we are only doing one park, universal studios. I wanted to do both but I especially wanted to do IOA. I love coasters and wanted to try the ones in IOA. Im just pointing this out to prove that I do give in...sometimes. We have never been to universal so I have no idea how to plan for it. I am completely in the dark and just hoping for the best. This bugs me to no end as I am a planner.
This was supposed to be my AK day with Boma but I had to scratch it. I have no idea where we will be eating maybe DTD after or better yet its EMH at MK so maybe we can head there after??? I don't know this day scares the life out of me. It could be bad, very bad.Day 5 Mon Nov 15th: Our 18th Wedding Anniversary!!!! MGM or HS whateva! This is not the park I would normally choose for my anniversary dinner because I have never had a good meal here. But, Im trying to go with the flow you know? 18 people and all... ADR 3:30 at 50's Prime Time with the K's, another 1st for us.
Day 6 Tues Nov 16th:MK because you just cannot do MK once. Winnie the pooh reopens this day so we must hit that. ADR Kona Cafe with J's and K's. Never had dinner here, only breakfast so its kinda new for us.
Day 7 Weds Nov 17th: AK which we will only have until about 2:00 because our flight leaves at 6:00ish.
What do you all think? I wanted to add all my pictures but for some reason the little box in the bottom left corner says I cannot post attachments. When I figure it out Ill attach my pictures, whats a report without pictures? If anyone can tell me how to do it I would appreciate it.
So what will happen? Will I turn the NO, NO's into GO, GO's after all? Will chaos ensue traveling with 18 people? Will I ever get my way on this trip? I've warned my neighbors and my neighbors kids that I get a little crazy when it comes to disney and to just stay out of my way and no one will get hurt, so they have been warned.
So here is it Nov 2nd and I have done absolutely nothing as far as preparing for the trip. On a side note, as I do not want this to be the tone of my report, I have just recently gotten some very, very bad news in regards to the health of my mom. She has stage 4 lung cancer and it is very bad. She has no symptoms yet but will start her treatments 3 days before our trip to try to give her a little more time. This sounds so blase' writing it like this and believe me I do not feel blase' about it. Its been a huge kick in the gut but we are dealing and making the best of it. I was going to cancel my trip but she would not hear of it. So we are going to proceed with the trip and try to have as blissful of a trip as we possibly can before returning to reality to deal with some very real life issues. Its awful, its a nightmare. We need this week as a family.
So, here I am wasting my one day off writing a PTR when I really should be catching up on my pig sty of a house and conquering the mountain of laundry that has been pushed aside for the last week while dealing with my moms health. Im a great procrastinator and you all have given me the perfect excuse to push off my chores for a couple of hours but I must go now and start the chores. So long and Ill check back soon to hopefully see that someone has actually taken the time to read my PTR without falling asleep. I may be setting myself up for dissappointment as I cannot write or spell for that matter but I try.
Your description of your DH laying down the law and then all of you doing what you want anyway cracked me up! That is pretty much like my DH. Your plans sound great though 18 people
I'm not sure I could handle that! We spent some time at Universal during our June trip and had a great time. I would guess the crowds won't be bad at all so you don't need to do the commando planning like Disney. Just relax and enjoy the day. If you want to read a bit about what we did click on our June '10 trip report in my siggie. There is a table of contents on the 1st entry. The Universal stuff is at the end of the report. Anyway looking forward to more plans.
Im going to go read your trip from June now to check it out, thanks for the tip!
